The term "history" appeared in the Russian language relatively recently, during the time of Peter the Great, being borrowed from European languages. Initially, even the sound of the first letter of the original Greek word "historia", which disappeared later, was even preserved. In Russia, they wrote "gishtoria". In Greek, the word "historia" meant "a story about the past", "about what has been learned." However, over time, it has acquired many semantic nuances. Today, the word "history" denotes not only the story of the past, the science that studies the past, but in general the consistent development itself, the change in reality.
However, despite its "completeness", the past has never been indifferent either for an individual, or for a people, or for humanity as a whole. Therefore, we always strive to "penetrate thought" into the past, to know it. It is not for nothing that the narrators of epics, various keepers of antiquity and wisdom, carriers and transmitters of information and knowledge enjoyed such honor and respect among the people - those who in modern language could be called the only "information relays" in the past.
History and time
The path traveled by mankind lay in a certain space and took a certain time. Before the onset of historical epochs that left written sources - chronicles, diaries, letters - the most important evidence of "locations" are archaeological materials obtained during excavations of settlements and cities, preserved tools and utensils, bone remains, drawings on rocks, coins, etc. d. However, it is very difficult to determine the time of their occurrence. Even if it is possible to find out the duration of the existence of an object of interest to us from the layers of coastal sediments that have preserved traces of the change of seasons, or from the annual rings of trees, it can be difficult to establish its absolute age. Just as uncertain until recently was the duration of the existence of mankind itself. Science was able to give a convincing answer to this question only as a result of penetrating into the secrets of the microcosm, i.e. only in the 20th century.
